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Dog credited for saving Oklahoma family from fire

A dog Susan Harmon took in and nursed back to health roused her from dozing when her family's house near Jacktown, OK, caught fire Sunday night.

BY ANN KELLEY akelley@opubco.com •
Published: July 21, 2011

JACKTOWN — Pal wandered onto Susan Harmon's doorstep, scraggly, with protruding rib bones and a limp like he'd been swiped by a car.

Walt Harmon, 24, sits with his dog, Pal, a mutt, at the back of what's left of his family's home Tuesday afternoon, July 19, 2011. The dog awakened Walt's mother, Susan Harmon with constant barking Sunday night when their home caught fire. Walt credits the pet with saving his life and allowing him to rescue his mother, and her parents, Harold and Donna Gilliam. from the smoke-filled home before it was destroyed by flames. The home is in rural Lincoln County about six miles north of Jacktown. Photo by Jim Beckel, The Oklahoman

Her family nursed the Labrador mix back to health.

This week, he returned the favor and rescued them from a fire that left their rural Lincoln County home near Jacktown in ruins.

“We probably would have died without him,” said Harmon, 53. “We don't know where he came from, maybe heaven.”

It was Sunday night. Harmon's wheelchair-bound mother, Donna Gilliam, 79, was fast asleep in the living room. Her father, Harold Gilliam, 82, slumbered in a bedroom while her son, Walt Harmon, 24, slept in another.

Susan Harmon was watching a movie and nodding off when Pal nudged open her bedroom door. She tried to ignore the dog.

“He kept pawing at my arm and wouldn't stop. Then he started whining and looking at the bedroom door,” she said.

She finally gave in, got up and swung open door. In rushed so much smoke it immediately filled the room.